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Welcome to the Palmer Lab at the University of Colorado

The development of fluorescence imaging techniques has revolutionized our ability to visualize cellular processes in real time. The scientific community now has the ability to interrogate specific proteins, molecules, and ions in cells with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. The focus of our lab is to expand this 'toolkit' to develop probes for imaging cellular metal homeostasis and bacterial pathogenesis.

These targets represent fascinating examples of the complexity of cellular signaling networks. Moreover, these signaling cascades have been implicated in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and cancer, as well as processes such as neurodegeneration and persistent bacterial infections. In our laboratory the creation of novel imaging probes to shed light on cell biology are inextricably linked. Our research combines in vitro spectroscopic and biophysical techniques, protein design and engineering for the development of novel probes, and cellular imaging studies to elucidate the mechanisms of cellular signaling pathways. To learn more about us and our research, please visit our website.

Last update: 02/06/2015

02/02/2015- Eugenia joins the lab! Eugenia comes to us from Corrie Detweiler's lab in MCDB! Welcome!

01/14/2015- Yeabsira's first day in the lab!

01/05/2015- Molly joins the lab! Molly received her Ph.D. from Dartmouth with Dr. Dean Wilcox. Welcome!

01/05/2015- Sarah's first day as a postdoc!

01/05/2015- Esther travels to Paris to meet with collaborators at the Institut Pasteur!

12/15/2014- Amy presents at the NIH Common Fund High-Risk High-Rewards Symposium at NIH!

12/10/2014- The group has a cookoff at the annual holiday party! For best main couse - Sarah comes in first and Ali comes in second! For best dessert - Lynn comes in first and Joe comes in second! Nice work all... it was delicious!

11/17/2014- Schuyler presents on his postdoctoral research at our lab meeting!

10/24/2014- Sarah successfully defends her thesis!

10/11/2014- The Palmer lab attends the annual Biochemistry Departmental retreat and Kyle gives a great talk!

10/10/2014- Kyle and Mike present their research at the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology retreat.

10/06/2014- Liz joins the lab! Liz received her Ph.D. from UCSD with Dr. Steve Mayfield. Welcome!

6/10/2011 - The lab headed up into the mountains, through the small town of Fairplay (The home of Comedy Central's South Park) to Buena Vista, and went white water rafting in Brown Canyon! A couple photos provided in the lab photos section.

1/10/2011 - Amy featured in the National Institute of General Medical Science's 'Findings'.

12/17/2010 - Janet graduates with her PhD!

12/15/2010- Jennette, a first year organic graduate student with previous experience involving bioinorganic chemistry, joined the lab. She will be focusing on Zinc (II) homeostasis and disease.

10/30/2010 - Janet and Amy are published in Nature - In collaboration with Vamsi Mootha at Harvard Medical School, Janet and Amy confirmed the involvement of MICU1, a mitochondrial associated protein with Calcium (II) uptake. For decades, the mechanism of mitochondrial calcim uptake has remained enigmatic, and this paper provides a significant step forward in understanding mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and dynamics in vivo.

10/25/2010 - Genevieve and Sarah join the lab - Genevieve Park, an MD/PH.D. student attending the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Sarah McQuate, a 3rd year graduate student in the department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, recently joined the lab. Sarah received her B.S. from the University of Puget Sound int he Pacific Northwest and will study Salmonella pathogensis. Genevieve received her B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and will study Zinc (II) homeostasis.

9/8/2010 - Kevin presented a poster at the Society of General Physiologists 'New Optical Methods in Cell Physiology' Symposia at Wood's Hole, MA.

7/10/2010 - Amy's first graduate student, Phil Dittmer, successfully defended his Ph.D. The topic of his dissertation was the sub-cellular localization and dynamics of zinc (II) in biological health and signaling.

6/12/2010 - Yan and Jose Attend FASEB Trace Metals - Yan will present her recent work regarding the development of improved fluorescent protein based Zinc (II) sensors that can now measure metal homeostasis from picomolar to micromolar quantities. In addition, Jose was awarded a FASEB MARC travel award to attend the conference.

4/4/2010 - Microfluidic Cell Counter published - Dawn Schaefer (Colorado School of Mines) and Emily Gibson report a simple fabrication technique to create all silicon/glass microfluidic devices using femtosecond laser ablation and anodic bonding. In a first application, they constructed a cell counting device based on small angle light scattering. The counter featured embedded optical fibers for multi-angle excitation and detection of scattered light and/or fluorescence. The performance of the microfluidic counter was benchmarked against a commercial fluorescence-activated cell sorter.

4/1/2010 - Sub-Cellular Zinc (II) Dynamics published - In this publication, several new genetically encoded sensors for Zinc (II) are presented based upon fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). Sources and sinks for Zinc (II) are explored within the cell, including the cytosol, plasma membrane, and mitochondria. Localized probes reveal that mitochondria contain an elevated pool of Zinc (II) under resting conditions that can be released into the cytosol upon glutamate stimulation of hippocampal neurons. Results suggests that mitochondria serve as a source of and a sink for Zinc (II) signals under different cellular conditions.

4/1/2010 - Calcium Dynamics, Alzheimers, and Presenillin-1 published - The connection between presenillin-1, calcium regulation, and Alzheimer's disease may provide the key to understanding the long-observed, but poorly understood, link between Alzheimer's disease and Calcium (II) dysregulation. In this study, Janet examined seven familial Alzheimer's causing mutations in presenillin-1 to define how they influence ER calcium levels and dynamics. Ultimately, results indicate that mutations in presenillin-1 can alter the balance of calcium in cells and have the potential to influence the nature of calcium signals.

4/1/2010 - Real-Time Salmonella Invasion - Featured int he news and views section of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Published in Nature Methods, Schuyler uses a GFP complementation assay to tag effectors of the type-III secretion system in gram-negative bacteria, thereby allowing real-time localization and imaging of the effectors in the host cell throughout the course of a bacterial infection.

4/1/2010 - Schuyler Defends - Schuyler successfully defended his Ph.D. and has accepted a position as a post-doctoral associate with Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the NIH in Maryland.